---
title: The higher the young man climbed the higher the birds seemed to be,… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The higher the young man climbed the higher the birds seemed to be, and when he looked down the earth below appeared no bigger than a star. Who acts: young man, birds, bird, earth. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 35, sentence 16

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The higher the young man climbed the higher the birds seemed to be, and when he looked down the earth below appeared no bigger than a star.

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**Who acts:** young man, birds, bird, earth · **What happens:** climb, seem, be, look down, appear · **To what, where:** earth

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young man, birds, bird, earth), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg3027:35:16
# text = The higher the young man climbed the higher the birds seemed to be, and when he looked down the earth below appeared no bigger than a star.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	climbed	climb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	nsubj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	down	down	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	below	below	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	no	no	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	xcomp	_	_
26	than	than	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	star	star	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **climb** | past | the young man |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **seem** | past | the birds |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **be** | to-infinitive | the birds *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **look down** | past | bird | the earth |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme earth=Attribute |
| 5 | **appear** | past | the earth *not said here* |  |  |  |  | below, big *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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